If you are looking for a kids birthday party planner on a budget, this post is for you.

I have just done my sons 6th birthday party and for this occasion, I have created a special planner to help me think of every little detail of the party. This way I have managed to think of every little thing in advance and prepare well for my son’s special day.

I knew we will be having quite a few guests as after a lockdown we just wanted to have everyone around us we all missed each other so I took advantage of my sons birthday to get everyone back together again.

And what a great party it was! My son was spoiled with lovely presents, the weather was just perfect and everyone had a good time. The only thing that had spoiled the day was the flies all over the food on the table that we were trying to keep away.

Never mind- nobody is going to remember that!

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Let me take you through the planning process I was going through in order to organise my son’s Birthday Party.

 

Before I begin, if you would like to download my Birthday Party Planner – For FREE-

Click here

On my planner, you will see all the things you need to consider. From the date through the venue, food and drinks to the tableware, I have it all covered.

 

 

One last thing… Make sure you start planning well in advance- I would say about a month before the party- this way you can get well organised and send out the invites early enough for the guests to put your special day in their calendars.

Date/ time

Quite an obvious one- just a thing to consider- make sure you will have a day off before the event so that you can prepare things rather than rushing everything as you have too little time. I like to host parties on Sunday as I work Mon- Friday so this was I can prepare things on Saturday. I also this way have time to clean my house up for the guest that might want to look around your house.

As per the time- if you set the time for very early, you will need to rush with the preparations on a day, if it’s too late, people might not wanna come (especially on Sunday). I like to host around 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.

Venue

If you are planning o host the party outside your own house- it’s best booking it well in advance. Usually, 2 months ahead is a minimum to avoid disappointments especially if the place you are booking is on high demand.

If you are however able to, you should definitely consider posting t home or in your garden (if you have one) as this way you can really save yourself a few pounds.

I am very lucky to have a large garden and this is why I did the party without a need for booking any venue.

Party Bags

As per British tradition (we do not have such tradition in my country) you give a party bag to the children before they leave as a thank you for celebrating your birthday with you. So it’s good to think of what kind of party bag you would like to make.

You can go for a traditional bag filled with party fillers or a bit less popular a book or sweet filled cones.

I did my own party bags and here are the items I have included:

• Party bags       
• Toy                   
• Balloons           
• Party Blowers
• Chuppa Chups lollies (bought in Home Bargain) but here is the alternative:                                           
• Sweets again bough in Home Bargain but here is the alternative:                                                               

Guest List

List down every person and child that you are inviting taking into consideration their partners and kids siblings. Also, the age of the children as for example babies would not eat or drink at the party much.

 

Entertainment

You can hire entertainment but they don’t come cheap. Sometimes the venue already comes with that arrangement but again it also cost way more than a venue hire alone.

So if you like me are frugal you would not like to splash the money on something you could possibly do yourself, right?

So what I did is I have planned ahead of time and looked for ideas of the entertainment I could do in my own remit.

• we hired a bouncy castle. Normally they range from £60 upwards but we managed to get one for a bit less as it was a friend of a friend who no longer does such thing just still has it to hire out to those that remember him if that makes sense… This was the only thing we have paid for, but since it has been set up at 11 a.m. all the way till 7 p.m. it did not stop being used so kids really made the most out of it. Money well spent!
• Pass the parcel game- I’ve bought a toy:

and a wrapping papers

I have played the music off the YouTube that has an especially prepared soundtrack for this game and the kids loved it!

• Sack Race- I have bought the 4 sack and a finishing line set like this one:

and kids had few runs on this and it went down well. My little one had struggled to catch up so we had to help him a bit… so cute.

• Sorting M&M’s- you need some straws, plates and a few cups and M&M’s bag or two for the kids to sort the colours into the cups. Some kids just have fun picking and just dropping to the cups without sorting and that is still ok as long as everyone is enjoying themselves

• Musical statues- you play the music and when the music stops kids freeze. If one moves they are out and last one standing is a winner

• Tattoos for kids

I got them off the internet as an alternative to a face painting. I have asked my friend to stick them on the children and they picked which one they wanted.

For boys, I got these ones

And for girls (and grown-ups too) I had these lovely metallic ones:

That was it fo the entertaining part, but there is so much more that can be done at home with no need to spend a penny like a Hot potatoes game of musical chairs or Charades to name a few.

Food

Depending on the time of the day you either want to prepare lunch type of food or dinner. It’s always a good idea to have some finger food easy to pick and a few warm dishes (depending on how many people you’re hosing.

Top tip: While you are planning what you are going to make, why not putting the ingrediance you need on your shopping list!

I have prepared most dishes on my own (with a little help from my friends – you know who you are girls so thank you again).

Here is the list of the food I had (mind you I had around 30 people at my party so needed quite a lot of food).

Those dishes I did not prepare on my own I mark as “shop-bought” and whenever the dish was vegetarian I indicated this with a (v) sign

Cold meals:

• sandwiches: ham and cheese, coronation chicken, egg and mayo (v), tuna sweetcorn
• wraps: tuna mayo sweetcorn and cream cheese 
• eggs stuffed with a mushroom filling (v)
• salats: greek salat (v), tuna pasta salad, chicken noodles salat
• hummus (v) (shop-bought)
• guacamole (v)
• nachos with salsa (shop-bought)
• bread: pitta (to go with hummus and guacamole) 
• polish kabanosy (smoked dried thin sausages- shop-bought)

Warm meals:

• chicken strips
• samosas (shop-bought)
• oven-baked chicken drums
• BBQ meat (marinated the day before): chicken BBQ style, chicken Indian style, polish sausages, lamb kebabs
• BBQ food (v) paneer cheese strips, halloumi cheese strips

Sweet treats: (all shop-bough)

• brownies 
• lemon drizzle cake 
• birthday cake
• celebrations 

If I was to prepare half of the food it would still be enough to feed everyone but I was just hoping no one goes home hungry.

Drinks

We had small water bottles, small juice for kids, small Ribena for kids, Fizzy drinks for adults, fruit juices and water.

Birthday cake

Three options here: 

1. Preordered cake- these usually cost a minimum of £50 but are personalised 
2. Shop bought cake- you can pick one up from Tesco or other supermarkets from around £10 upwards
3. Homemade one- this will cost you a minimum of £10 depending on the size and type obviously, but if you are good at making cakes it is a great time to show off your skills 

I had bought one from Costco for £15 and decorated it myself with the royal icing  (name, age and Sto Lat sign (happy birthday in polish).

Invitations

I would strongly recommend making those in advance (at least a months before the party). This way people will be informed early enough to ensure they can attend.

You can buy some from the shop or make some yourself.

If you are crafty, make some with your child (if you are going to give them out in person)

If you, however, are going to be sending them electronically you can design them in Canva – a free to use website where you can create lots of different things.

Here is the one I made which I have sent to people via WhatsApp message and email (I deleted my number and address for obvious reasons)

 

 

Decorations/ theme 

Think in advance how would you like to decorate the venue. 

You can use some balloons, banners and also a tablecloth to go with the theme. As to the theme, many people either go for a one colour theme or superhero/ cartoon character theme.

I had balloons, party banners and there was no theme really as I just couldn’t find matching colours of balloons and banners so I just had all colours that I could find.

Tableware

Don’t forget that you will need:

• plates (plastic or paper)
• bowls (plastic or paper)
• cutleries 
• cups (for hot and cold drinks)
• tablecloth
• napkins

This is easily overlooked but very important to ensure you have those otherwise you will end up having plenty of dishes to wash.

 

Last but not least

Think of what you and your child/ren are going to wear. Preparing in advance will save you a hassle on a day.

 

Conclusion

Planning a kids party can be a stressful thing to organise but you can avoid it with planning ahead. With a good planner, it will be so much easier to just write things down as to what you need and ensure you have not missed a thing.

I hope this kids birthday party planner was informative and useful.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have ever organised a kiddies party and if so maybe you can give me some tips I could use next time (I have 3 kids so parties do happen 3 x a year in my household).

Thank you and please don’t forget to share it and also subscribe to my blog.